Gospel Music - A Look Into Its Origin, Roots, History

When you think of gospel music, chances are churches and large church choirs doing rousing performances

were the first things that came to your mind. But would you believe that there was a time when such

performances would hardly be associated with the church?

Not too many people know that gospel music origin didn’t just usher the creation of a new music genre, it also

gave birth to the present-day African-American culture.

Gospel music roots goes back to Africa but most of the sound was developed on American soil, particularly in

the southern area, during the 18th

century at the height of the slavery era. Tribal African music dealt exclusively

with the sacred and was used by tribesmen as a means to be in harmony with nature.

When the American slavers brought Africans to American soil, a ban prohibiting their native music and the use

of traditional African instruments was imposed on them. This was done in order to further subjugate them and

prevent them from communicating with one another.

The enslaved Africans then turned to creating a new kind of music by using Christian subjects instead and fused

their traditional African music styles with the Western style of harmony and musical instruments, thus began

the modern day gospel music.

The origin of gospel music first started to grow in the South where slavery flourished during the 1600s. To keep

the enslaved Africans in check, the Africans were also compelled to attend their masters’ worship services,

which further reinforced the slavery doctrine.

The church and religion became the slaves’ sanctuary and acted as their guiding force in times of great

adversity, even more so after their eventual emancipation. It wasn’t long before their own brand of African-

American culture and music started to thrive within the safe confines of the churches.

The converted slaves started to adapt the normally somber and sedated Methodist hymns, infusing it with their

own native music. In a fact, a lot of the well-known present-day gospel song patterns, such as the popular call

and response style and the use of complex percussion rhythms, are also key features of tribal African music.

Gospel music started to spread towards the North American territories during the late 1800s when slaves were

allowed to publicly perform in large musical ensembles. The new breed of music was embraced by the all-white

public, their interest obviously piqued by the new sound. Pretty soon the influence of gospel music started to

trickle down not only to traditional religious music but also to popular American music.

Some of the most popular personalities in recent music history such as Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Mahalia

Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and Jerry Lee Lewis among others have cited their own gospel music roots back at

their own churches as having a significant influence on them.

Of the aforementioned names, only Mahalia Jackson—the undisputed first Queen of Gospel Music—has the

distinction of maintaining a steady career in gospel music. The others had also found crossover success in

secular music, despite not completely severing their gospel music roots throughout their music career.

Written by Gary Harbin www.garyharbin.com Gospel Music - A Look Into Its Origin, Roots, History